Let the new national endeavour of building a new nation begin with new hope and faith in a righteous nation to embrace the manifest destiny of the new Nigeria led by righteous and God-fearing citizens.
By Anya O. Anya
I. INTRODUCTION TO THE STATE OF THE NATION:
The greatest danger facing our nation presently is that our situation is worse than we realize while our political leaders behave as if they are oblivious of the dangers that surround us. Where do we begin from to disentangle the interlocking tripartite problems of the economy, security and poverty which have organized themselves into a gordian knot that denies us the standing space from which to deal with our current problems with a sequential approach. What is more the pervading environment of corruption, impunity and violence confounds our resolve to deal with our situation in a logical, rational and self diminishing strategy especially as the economic challenges are slowly acquiring the visage of intractability.
Currently the debt burden is such that it is difficult to envisage where the solution can come from. At the inception of this retreating regime the debt burden was in the region of 10 trillion naira. The latest figure from the Debt Management Office gives an estimate of more than 77 trillion naira! If we add the over 23 trillion naira owed the Central Bank through the Ways and Means our total debt burden is over 100 trillion naira.
The difficulty of conjuring how to pay this humongous national debt is made worse by the revelation by the World Bank that in March 2023, the total revenue of the Federal Government could only meet 96% of what is required to service (not to repay) the outstanding loans!
The twin scandal of the precipitous decline of the value of the naira against the dollar and the Oil Subsidy is a story that must await the departure of the government of the day to appreciate fully the ramifications. As for the normal routine metrics of the economy; inflation, unemployment and potential social chaos are all heading southwards. Indeed the appropriate response to any successor new government can only be pity and prayers. Yet there is a certain air of triumphalism that characterizes the attitude of the average Nigerian politician especially of the governing party in spite of the chaos that we witnessed with the currency exchange debacle.
How do we explain the total absence of realism about the current state of the economy amongst our politicians? Is it a matter of total lack of empathy or knowledge or a total lack of social conscience in the light of the heightened level of fraud, violence and criminality from the insurrection in the North-East, the bandits of the North-West as well as the herdsmen in the North Central. Armed robbers, kidnappers and sundry other warlords hold the South in their firm grip of criminality and creeping chaos. In all the commotion of the electoral season vote-buying and voter suppression held sway. Humongous sums of money exchanged hands particularly during the period of the party primary season where it is alleged that up to 30,000 dollars were paid for a delegate’s vote. In all these we never heard even once a moral voice from amongst the politicians open their mouths in condemnation. Indeed it seems that there is a pervading environment of perfidy, distrust and intolerance.
Does this signify a total lack of emotional intelligence and humanity in the Nigerian political class? Some may see it as the signal that evil, unadulterated evil has over taken the Nigerian political elite who have in the process acquired their cooperating surrogates in the judiciary? It would seem that over the last 20 years a new culture of brigandage and impunity took over the ramparts of our political structure. No wonder the new sense of bravado and impunity that gives the average Nigerian politician the confidence and temerity to ask his political opponent to go to court knowing that the judiciary will mete out judgment rather than Justice. We saw the culture of impunity play out its game in the Adamawa governorship elections. Yet we hope for the redeeming minority in the judiciary who may yet save us and our nation. We may then discover as Elijah did that there are still present in our judiciary those thousands who have not bent their knees to the baal of greed.
II. THE GENESIS OF OUR DILEMMA: LEADERSHIP AND VALUES:
It was the late Chinua Achebe who pinpointed leadership as the central problem that has bedevilled progress in our society. As has been noted leadership is a process of social influence which mobilizes the efforts of others towards the achievement of a goal. The leader is therefore the person who holds a dominant position within his/her environment and thus able to exercise a high degree of control or influence. It was the late Dwight Einsenhower a soldier and former President of the United States who defined leadership as the act of getting someone else to do something you want done because he or she wants to do it. However, in any given society leadership is exercised within a context of the ethics and values of the society. While ethics embodies the set of rules that govern the behaviour of a person or society values codify the beliefs for which a person or society has an enduring preference. Hence ethics and values are important in every aspect of life especially when we have to make a choice between two things: ethics determines what is right and values determine what is important. Thus ethics provide the guidelines for conduct (morality) while values codify the principles and ideas which help the individual in judgement as to which is more important. Values are at the centre of our lives as the basis for judgement. They enforce on individuals the imperative to behave in a particular manner and hence enforce a particular course of action. Being motivational it affects the emotional state of mind. Further the value system defines the context in which power can be exercised. It involves the ability to achieve goals with or without the support of the larger society. The public are mainly bystanders.
In a pluralistic society such as ours how power is distributed is important. Power can be distributed among many groups such as coalition of like minded people and professional associations. In the final analysis power implies the possession of ability to wield force, authority or influence. Within the national context we can apprehend” the nation as a community of people composed of one or more nationalities and possessing a more or less defined territory and government with a written constitution….” Alternatively, we can see it as a stable community of people formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity or psychology manifested in a common culture.
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The challenge in building a nation has led societies to examine more closely the qualities that drive leadership and the threats that are common amongst successful leaders. The seven leadership qualities can be summarized as vision, courage, integrity, humanity, strategic focus and cooperation. On the other hand some traits are common amongst successful leaders namely honesty (integrity), confidence, inspiration, commitment (passion), communication, decision making, accountability, delegation (empowerment), creativity (innovation) and empathy. Of all these qualities and traits vital for leadership amongst successful leaders, is integrity: for truth is the foundation of trust and trust is a capstone of integrity. Of all the theories of power the power elite model” recognizes the interwoven interests of the leaders of the military, corporate and political elements of the society which is regarded as constituting a single elite group rather than a multiplicity of competing groups who decide the life-and-death issues of the nation, leaving minor matters for the middle level and almost nothing for the common people…”
Howbeit, as a nation they form a stable community of people formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity or psychology as manifested in a common culture.
As a nation the citizens share a common vision, a value system sustained in an ethical framework that is future-oriented, share a positive attitude and accept shared responsibility for the sustenance of a common destiny.
In a plural society such as Nigeria the enduring challenge is to reconcile the various value systems, by identifying and sharing common values while realigning areas of difference such that a unifying pan-national code of values that embraces all elements in the society emerges that unites the people in the pursuit of common national goals in harmony, fairness, justice and shared humanity.
III. THE TRIPARTITE CHALLENGE:
Despite the plenitude of our problems as was indicated above, three challenges loom large above the others given their fundamental and the interlinked nature of their relationship and their impact on the future of the Nation. These are:
• the debt trap
• The issue of legitimacy and
• the problem of poverty
i) Argentina in the 1920s was a fast-growing economy that was an authentic rival to many West European Nations. Then it ran into dangerous economic headwinds engineered by political rascality that led to stagnation and de-industrialisation. The result was that thirty to forty years down the road it was caught in a debt trap such that even the economic engineering touch of the World Bank failed. In Africa Zimbabwe is currently pursuing that same path that oftentimes ends in hyperinflation. Current signs suggest that unless we recruit disciplined managers we could follow in their path. It must be the prayer of every patriotic Nigerian that we do not embark on the treacherous road to Zimbabwe
ii) We have just come out of an election that some regard as the worst in our history. This is how U.S Joint Observation Mission (JEOM) described their experience which involved observations by the international Republican institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) of the U.S. who accused the INEC as follows “at the close of the polls, challenges with the electronic transfer of results and their upload to a public portal in a timely manner undermined citizens confidence at a crucial moment of the process… Moreover inadequate communication and lack of transparency by INEC about their cause and extent created confusion and eroded voter’s trust in the process.” What is more, the INEC claim they had registered over 90 million voters in the exercise but only 10% of the registered voters used the opportunity to vote. The declared winners of the election scored less than one-third of the votes cast by the electorate. The essence of a democratic election is to ensure that the majority of the voters (at least 50%) would have made their input to the point where the majority of registered voters could have participated in choosing the winners. When this does not happen, it suggests that only a minority of the voters exercised their right to choose. Since sovereignty belongs to all the people which is the essence of democratic elections, it means that a minority government as has happened now does not have the full authority conferred by the majority of the citizens through the transfer of sovereignty by the people. To that extent legitimacy of such a government is called into question.
iii) Recent reports suggest that over 70% of Nigerian citizens 133 million live below the poverty line. When it is recalled that the raison d’etre of democractic governance, according to the 1999 Nigerian constitution is the welfare and security of the people, it means that the government has failed the people in light of the rampant poverty and overwhelming criminality and violence.
IV. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE:
We had suggested at the beginning of this lecture that we as a people do not have the full measure of the seriousness of our situation even as our leaders seem oblivious of the real horrid situation we are in. We are constrained by our inability to pay attention to the onerous task of building an inclusive nation. We tend to underestimate the magnitude of our national problems. Let us take for example the goal and strategy we should pursue in the furtherance of our target.
Much of the time in the last 30 years our target for the growth of the economy has usually been to achieve growth rate of 2 to 3% p.a. Only once in the regime of Dr Jonathan did the growth target approach 8% pa. As economists know it is only at the threshold of a growth rate of 7.5% pa will an economy approach the desirable outcome of doubling the GDP pa every decade. A necessary condition for the achievement of this target is that the population shows no growth throughout the decade. Otherwise adjustments must be made for population growth. In the light of the fact that Nigeria’s population growth rate has hovered over the last decade at a minimum of around 3% p.a. Consequently to enter the fast paced economic growth path of above 7.5% p.a, Nigeria’s growth target should be at the minimum level of 11% p.a (ie.7.5 plus 3.0=10.5%.) In other words, Nigeria’s growth rate must be at the double digit growth rate. Surprisingly, no economic team has made this the target growth rate for the Nigerian economy as a matter of policy or strategic imperative in the last 30 years. The question may be raised then at this stage what is our vision for the new Nigeria that the youth are demanding? As a beginning it can be suggested that the following four points epigram can suffice and can be regarded as an encapsulation of a desirable Nigerian nation of the future, namely, a society in which we have
• wealth with equity;
• truth with compassion;
• justice with fairness and;
• reconciliation with empathy
We need to re-humanize the new Nigerian nation in a manner that can give our new mission a human face.
Beyond the economic challenge, we need a strategy that can fast-track the building of a nation that is united, integrated and cohesive despite its plural composition as a multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual commonwealth of nationalities. It has been suggested that the appropriate strategy to pursue in the achievement of such a cohesive and multicultural federation of nationalities is a strategy pursued by modern purveyors of management science called the boundary spanning strategy. Its basic aim is to identify a common set of values shared by the component nationalities and encourage the utilization of such common set of values as a dominant set of norms in the putative new nation. This is followed by simultaneously identifying the areas of differences and deliberately encouraging practices of cooperation across the boundaries, hence the recognition of such practices as boundaries spanning practices which overtime will meld into each other and reduce the areas of friction.
It is germane to indicate at this point the Federal Character Principle was described as ’the distinctive desire of the people of Nigeria to promote national unity, foster national loyalty and give every citizen of Nigeria a sense of belonging to the nation’ It was not pursued with the same rigour that boundary spanning practices were pursued in the U.S and some western nations. In addition, the management practices elaborated above were also interconnected with the concept of affirmative action. It was therefore possible to encourage inclusion without satisfying the demands of merit and excellence. The less than rigorous manner the federal character principle was pursued gave the impression that merit and quality could be sacrificed on the altar of mediocrity. It should however be noted that a society that pursues excellence and merit can still be a society of equal opportunities in an environment of social justice, fairness and compassion. Indeed the demands of an active social conscience in such a society drives the demand of fair and just competition that enhances the opportunities for exceptional achievement.
V. 2023 ELECTIONS AND THE AFTERMATH:
Given the plethora of challenges and dysfunctionality that has enshrouded our society in this period, we must admit that we are not at present a healthy society. In the light of the cantakerous, divisive, foul and intolerant exchanges we witnessed in the period of the recent elections, we must confess to the many fault lines that have been exposed. In the circumstances we need a massive dose of a potent healing balm. Where do we find that balm and how do we administer it efficaciously and effectively? Obviously such an environment as we have found ourselves in demands an uncommon, unique and exceptional leadership because the omens suggest that the challenge of nation building must start in earnest today or we would have lost our still-to-be born and emergent nation.
Three years ago a distinguished group of our wise elders had espied that we will end up in the ditch given the way we were going then and if the trends that they saw then emerging were allowed to fester and grow into a full-blown near-disaster. They advised that we reverse our trajectory, otherwise they cautioned that if we continued on the track we were trudging along oblivious of the rocky terrain we would soon embrace a disaster. That group of elders had Dr. Christopher Kolade, the chairman of your board of trustees and my humble self as co-chairmen. In our first statement of warning to the nation we had started with the ominous phrase “we are burdened….” The Press proceeded to attach the appellation of the “Burdened Elders” to the group. Since that time the burden has grown into a mountain of great challenges. What is more some of the wisest Nigerian elders who belong to the group have proceeded to their place of eternal rest namely Alhaji Ahmed Joda, Professor Akin Mabogunje and Professor George Obiozor. So it has been evident to many of our wisest elders that our nation need healing. So the question arises will our amoral and immoral political class pause and listen?
Earlier we had identified the qualities and the traits which are usually found in those men and women who have displayed exemplary leadership in their society and in the wider world, such names as Mandela, Lincoln, Ghandi and Deng Xiaoping. Of all the qualities and traits of leaders the most fundamental are truth and love which are also regarded as divine attributes. Indeed, Jesus had summarised the law and the prophets in his exposition in Matthew 22 : 32 to 40: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS
In the final analysis these attributes are attributes of the servant leader and the embodiment of the model of the servant leader is Christ who in His humanity washed the feet of His disciples. The greatest wish of any modern disciple is to be cast in the image of Christ. The greatest challenge at this time of our national history is to find that servant leader clothed with humility and dressed in the noble garment of truth and love who will lead the Nation in the path of cooperation, conciliation, compassion and competence. The balm of truth and love will nurture friendship and fellowship as the national badge of citizenship in an industrious nation where all good things are possible. Let the new national endeavour of building a new nation begin with new hope and faith in a righteous nation to embrace the manifest destiny of the new Nigeria led by righteous and God-fearing citizens. God bless us all and our new prosperous nation, the new Nigeria.
- (A KEYNOTE ADDRESS TO THE KINGDOM MEN GLOBAL NETWORK)
PROFESSOR ANYA O. ANYA, Ph.D (Cambridge) D.Sc(Hon) D.Litt (Hon) FAS, NNOM
Lagos, 11th May, 2023.